WELLNESS ZONE: Marielle Alix’s secret to great digestion

It's amazing Just how many of us suffer from poor digestion, which can lead to all sorts of problems, so we've reached out to Holistic and Lifestyle coach Mariella Alix to ask her about the key to good digestion.

We all know that suffering from digestive problems such as gas, bloating, reflux, stomach cramps, diarrhoea, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease can seriously hinder our daily functioning and make us miserable.

Your gastrointestinal tract (GI) tract acts as your body’s food processor and if it’s blocked, overloaded, polluted with toxins such as food additives, pesticides and preservatives, or otherwise irritated, it is going to let you know how it feels by having one of the reactions listed above.

Your GI tract first breaks down your food by the mechanical process of chewing and then by a multitude of complex chemical processes that extracts nutrients to feed your system and expel toxins.

So what is my best kept secret to better digestion?

The best way to ensure that we are helping make it easy for our bodies to digest our food is to chew A LOT so that our food mixes with our digestive juices so it can be easily digested and better absorbed for optimal nutrition.

I know it’s not the most glamorous solution but it’s one of the tips that has made the greatest difference in my wellbeing. It’s one we often take for granted so much so that we sometimes just swallow our food whole, forgetting to grind our teeth altogether!

Learning how to chew your food properly (up to 30 times per bite) will help you extract the maximum nutrients from your food and get your digestive juices flowing right AND help keep your weight down and your tummy flat.

How? Because if you eat healthy food packed with nutrients that you chew properly with each bite, you will be able to recognize once you feel full and you will therefore eat less!

My clients find that learning how-to chew helps to:

Sense intuitively when you are full

Gain way more satisfaction from eating

Develop a healthier relationship with food

How to chew better for optimal digestion:

To get in the habit of chewing, try chewing each bite of food at the beginning of your next meal 30 times. (For me, putting the fork down and breathing between bites has been amazing. I actually noticed that I had been holding my breath!)

Even if you only have 5 minutes for a meal, let the chewing relax you and use it almost as a meditation. That way you’ll enjoy the whole spectrum of tastes and aromas that make up the meal, trigger cephalic phase digestion (where you start producing enzymes from the sight and smell of food) and your body and brain will be satisfied even with a quickie.

What do I do now?

In my health coaching practice, I help clients understand why they eat in a rush and forget to chew and we come up with a how-to guide for chewing that is easy to implement and turns eating into a whole new enjoyable experience.

If you want to learn how to enjoy a better digestion that will lead to a flatter, firmer belly, then visit my website to schedule a free discovery session to talk with me about it!